Mops, Brooms and Realtors

We headed down to Florida yesterday to do a quick spit and shine to the house in Lake City. We met with a realtor who is putting it up on the market for us.

Mary was SO excited about our little trip! She was going to be able to see her best buddy in the whole world, Chrissy! Leaving her behind when we moved was the hardest thing on my little blondie. They spent a lot of time together riding bikes around the neighborhood, constructing Barbie empires and planning which house they would have dinner at. Sometimes both!

Mary packed a bag full of Barbies, was a tad upset that her bike would not be able to make the trip, and rode the 200 miles to Lake City anxious to see Chrissy. She called her as soon as we got to town to let her know she’d be there in just a few minutes! We pulled in the driveway, opened the back of the truck, grabbed her scooter and she was off. Down the street she went. I didn’t think we’d see her for a while.

Bill and I set to work to clean up the house. We opened up all the windows and doors to get a breeze going through. It was a hot day! We were sweatin’ buckets in no time!

There wasn’t a whole lot to do, we’d cleaned up pretty good before we moved, but we wanted the floors and counters to be clean when the realtor came. I had grand delusions of washing the windows, but with the heat that idea was tossed right out! They’re fine.

We have a friend who is taking care of the lawn for us. We knew it was probably getting to be a jungle and were just discussing hiring someone to maintain it for us one night when our neighbor there called us and asked us about it. How embarrassing. Oh well. It’s taken care of now.

The realtor came by and took a look around. We signed some papers and she was off, telling us she would do her best with the house, but was honest enough with us to admit how bad the market was right now. I was glad she didn’t blow a massive amount of smoke our way as some would do. I’m not a big fan of real estate people from my experience in the past. She’s hurting financially with the stall in business just as everyone else is, so I hope it goes well for her eventually.

So if anyone wants a cute little house in North Florida, just let me know! It’s gently used, in a quiet neighborhood and is good with children. I’ll have my people call your people.

We locked up the house and headed down to Chrissy’s house to visit with her folks before we headed home. Hot, sweaty and stinky, we enjoyed chatting with them, drinking their tea, playing with their dog and cooling off in their air conditioning. We talked about when would be a good time to come kidnap Chrissy for a visit here in Savannah. The girls would have liked to just thrown some clothes and Barbies into the truck right then, but Mary still has a couple weeks of school left. Chrissy’s last day was Friday.

We had to separate the two girls, who were clinging to each other out on the front lawn as we tried to make our way to the truck, like one of them was off to the gas chamber, never to be seen again. Mary was a poor, sad little thing as we drove out of Lake City only coming to life momentarily when she asked if we still got to stop at Dairy Queen on our way home. Then the headphones went on again and she was lost in thoughts of who knows what. Planning her time when she’ll finally get to see her friend again? Or maybe the torture she’d like to bestow upon her parents for making her leave her behind. I guess only time will tell.